Microwave Annealing Effects of Indium‐Tin‐Oxide Thin Films: Comparison with Conventional Annealing Methods

Abstract

In this study, an optimized post-deposition heat treatment method is investigated to improve the electrical, optical, and structural properties of indium-tin-oxide (ITO) thin films applied to transparent electrodes in nextgeneration displays. In order to improve the properties of ITO thin films, heat treatment is performed using conventional thermal annealing (CTA), rapid thermal annealing (RTA), and microwave annealing (MWA). To evaluate the effect of MWA on the ITO thin film, the electrical, optical, and structural characteristics of the thin film are analyzed and compared with those of the films annealed by traditional CTA and RTA. The results show that the electrical and optical characteristics of the ITO thin film improve with the increase in microwave power. In particular, the sheet resistance of the ITO thin film reduces to 4 Â 10 2 Ω sq À1 , despite the microwave power of 250 W and short heat treatment duration of 2.5 min by MWA. In addition, the optical transmittance of the ITO thin film in the visible region increases to 89.5%, superior to the transmittance before heat treatment of 87.5%.

Enhancement of Electrical Properties of Sol–Gel Indium–Tin–Oxide Films by Microwave Irradiation and Plasma Treatment

“…This is because, as previously reported in our study [27], MWI is superior to CFA in terms of precursor and solvent decomposition owing to the high transfer efficiency of microwave energy. Furthermore, MWI is more effective in removing residual organic contaminants and obtaining a high level of solution condensation and metal oxide film densification [32][33][34][35]. After PDA, Rs increased with the plasma treatment time and power in the case of O2 plasma treatment.…”

Microwave plasma and rapid thermal processing of indium-tin oxide thin films for enhancing their performance as transparent electrodes

“…Among these, ITO has the best optoelectronic properties because it has high electrical conductivity and large transparency in the visible region of the spectrum, together with high reflectance in the infrared wavelength interval. Besides, this material has a wide bandgap (Eg = 3.5 − 4.2 eV) [10], [11].…”

Raman Study of the Comparative Effects of Conventional and Microwave Annealing on MgTiO3 Thin Films Sputtered on Si Substrate

“…[ 43 ] For these reasons, a high temperature is necessary to have a large amount of heating energy which is limited by the heating rate and the nature of the heating element. [ 44 ] Thus, this CA is a slow process because heat is applied to the surface of the MgTiO 3 films deposited on the silicon substrate and must be transferred into the materials by thermal conduction in order to be fully annealed. Moreover, it is the surrounding environment that is heated and not the materials directly, which slows down the heating and cooling rates.…”